Hubble Space Telescope

Since its 1990 launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our fundamental understanding of the universe.

active Mission

Why

Why a telescope in space?

How

How does the observatory work?

Who

Who is the team behind Hubble?
Hubble Space Telescope in space with Earth in the background.

Throughout the history of science, revolutionary instruments propel our understanding with their landmark discoveries. The Hubble Space Telescope is a testament to that concept. Its design, technology and serviceability have made it one of NASA's most transformative observatories. From determining the atmospheric composition of planets around other stars to discovering dark energy, Hubble has changed humanity's understanding of the universe.

Mission Type

Space Telescope

Destination

Low Earth Orbit

Launch

APR 24, 1990

Objective

Understand the Universe
Featured Video

HUBBLE SCIENCE
Shoemaker-Levy 9: Interplanetary Impact

Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 left an indelible mark on our understanding of the solar system when it collided with Jupiter. Discover the event’s significance and the crucial role NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope played in capturing its dramatic impact.

Hubble's Latest Features

The galaxy cluster Stephan's Quintet is imaged behind this video thumbnail. The cluster holds galaxies in colors of reddish-yellow and bright white.

Hubble’s Inside the Image: Stephan's Quintet

Dr. Jennifer Wiseman explores the intricate details of Stephan's Quintet and discusses how Hubble's observations continue to deepen our understanding of galactic behavior and the universe.

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Screenshots from the NASA App.

Hubble on the NASA App

NASA's free mobile application puts Hubble interactives, resources, and information at your fingertips, including an augmented reality model exclusive to the NASA app. Use this app to stay up to date on all things Hubble!

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Framed colorful lighted galaxy images hanging along a tan wall.

Hubble Posters

Downloadable versions of Hubble's iconic images ready to print and hang on your classroom, office, science center, or home walls.

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Glowing clouds of pink and red gas and dust fill the image, along with several stars – foreground stars shine with diffraction spikes, and more distant stars fill the background.

Meet Your Cosmic Neighbors

August 19-30, 2024
Hubble took us on a trip through our cosmic neighborhood with new images of nearby galaxies and nebulae!

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Thumbnail for video

Hubble's Inside the Image: Cat's Eye Nebula

In this video, Dr. Ken Carpenter delves into the beauty of this cosmic jewel and discusses the critical role Hubble plays in unraveling the secrets of stellar evolution and the lifecycle of stars.

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Mosaic of the Pillars of Creation visualization model, composed of 4 rectangular strips oriented 45 degrees clockwise from vertical. Strips alternate between Hubble and Webb views of the visualization model, with each strip labeled: “Hubble” at lower right corners of first and third strips; “Webb” at upper left corners of the second and fourth strips. Webb strips have drop shadows that make it look like they are overlaid on top of larger Hubble image. Mosaic shows 3 vertical structures (pillars) of thick smoke-like material. Pillar edges are glowing, with thin wisps of material moving away into space. In Hubble strips, pillars are dark brown and opaque, on greenish blue background. In Webb strips, pillars are bright orange to brown with a distinct area of bright red at the top of middle pillar. A red star appears at the tip of a peak in the left pillar and the background is deep blue.

Pillars of Creation Visualization from Hubble and Webb Telescopes

Made famous in 1995 by Hubble, the Pillars of Creation in the heart of the Eagle Nebula have captured imaginations worldwide with their arresting, ethereal beauty.

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Illustration of various space-based and ground-based telescopes.

Hubble's Partners in Science

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has a long history of working with other observatories to explore our universe.

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Background image: a field of galaxies against a black background. Text in white: Refsdal: Hubble's Inside the Image

Inside the Image: Lensed Supernova Refsdal

Dr. Brian Welch explains Hubble's image of a massive galaxy cluster creating a gravitational lens that magnified the same supernova exploding four different times!

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Video Thumbnail text: Hubble's Inside the Image: Herbig-Haro Jet HH24. Background image holds clouds of yellow, white, gold, grey, and black. A bright jet of material runs appears to emerge from a bright cloud near image center. It runs from the cloud to the upper left and the lower right. NASA meatball logo is in the upper-right corner.

Inside the Image: Herbig-Haro Jet HH 24

A dark, Jedi-like cloak of dust obscures a newborn star that is shooting twin jets out into space. Dr. Kenneth Carpenter explains this breathtaking image.

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Video thumbnail for a video about Hubble's clock rollover. Background holds a calendar with red numbers. The foreground holds an image of the Hubble Space Telescope. Title reads: It's Time to Change Hubble's Clock

It's Time to Change Hubble's Clock

Remember that Y2K thing a few years ago? Well, it turns out Hubble has something similar, only Hubble’s clock restarts every 6,213 days, 18 hours, 48 minutes, and 31.875 seconds, or roughly every 17 years.

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What Did Hubble See on Your Birthday?

Hubble explores the universe 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. That means it has observed some fascinating cosmic wonder every day of the year, including on your birthday.

Check Out Your Birthday!
Hubble Nebula - Orion Nebula

More Hubble Online Activities

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Screenshot of the "What is Hubble Observing" tool window. Black background with stars filling the window. Text indicating the target. A bright patch in the center of the window is the Crab Nebula. It appears as a jagged-edged bright cloud.

What is Hubble Observing?

See the area of sky Hubble is investigating.

An astronaut stands in front of a background of a nebula against a deep field of galaxies. The words "Name That Nebula" hovers above.

Name that Nebula!

Match nebulae with their names

Faint band of stars, gas, and dust stretches from left to right across the frame. This band is a representation of our galaxy as seen from space, edge-on. Colorful icons representing the types of objects Hubble has observed litter the frame: blue stars, orange spiral for galaxies, pink clouds for nebulae, yellow swirling top for exotic objects, and a green circle for exoplanets.

Hubble's Skymap

Get a Hubble's-eye-view of cosmic objects

Photograph of Hubble orbiting the Earth

Hubble Spacecraft 360 Degree Tour

Virtually Tour Hubble in orbit

A title slide that says "astronaut Fun Facts"

Hubble Astronaut Fun Facts

Play this trivia game and test your knowledge!

360 image of Hubble's "Space Telescope Operations Control Center" The image is stretched because it is designed for 360 degree viewing. The image shows many desks within the control center with data on their screens.

Control Center 360-Degree Tour

Take a virtual tour of Hubble's operations center

Meet Your Cosmic Neighbors

Glowing clouds of pink and red gas and dust fill the image, along with several stars – foreground stars shine with diffraction spikes, and more distant stars fill the background.

Hubble Spots Billowing Bubbles of Stellar Floss

A bubbling region of stars both old and new lies some 160,000 light-years away in the constellation Dorado. 

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An oblong smudge of stars stretches diagonally across the image from upper-left to lower-right. It holds stars in blue, orange, yellow, and white. The highest concentration of stars is near the image center and toward the lower-right. This region also holds bright, light-blue clumps of stars. Star densities taper off in all directions as you move away from the core. A number of bright, distant galaxies dot the scene, with a few shining through UGC 4879.

Hubble Examines a Possible Relic

This Hubble image captures the dwarf irregular galaxy UGC 4879, also known as VV124.

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Thousands of bright stars crowd the image, alongside bright pink and red regions of nebulosity.

Hubble Peers Into the Center of a Star-forming Powerhouse

This view from Hubble plunges into the center of spiral galaxy Messier 33, also known as the Triangulum Galaxy. 

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A black background dotted with stars and distant galaxies. The distribution of stars increases toward image center, forming the loose oval shape of the irregular galaxy Leo A that stretches horizontally across the image. Three foreground stars shine brightly – one located at center-top, and two others in the lower-right quadrant of the image. Each holds four bright barbs (called diffraction spikes) that extend outward from the star.

Hubble Finds Structure in an Unstructured Galaxy

This Hubble image features the nearby dwarf irregular galaxy Leo A, located some 2.6 million light-years away.

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More closely concentrated near the center, several stars shine against black space along with a few distant galaxies.

Hubble Reaches a Lonely Light in the Dark

A splatter of stars glows faintly at almost 3 million light-years away in this new image of the Tucana Dwarf from Hubble.

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A grouping of large, glowing, and purplish stars dominate the image’s center. Dark ridges of gas and dust are visible around them, with more background stars crowding the view.

Hubble Captures Unique Ultraviolet View of a Spectacular Star Cluster

NGC 346 is nestled within the Small Magellanic Cloud, a small satellite galaxy to our Milky Way.

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Several stars shine against black space. A few foreground stars with diffraction spikes throughout.

Hubble Pinpoints a Dim, Starry Mini-galaxy

A glittering collection of stars shines against a background of much more distant galaxies in this view from Hubble of the Pegasus Dwarf spheroidal galaxy, also known as Andromeda VI. 

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Thousands of stars fill the image against black space, with a glowing, nebulous cloud of pink dominating most of the lower right half of the view.

Hubble Traces Star Formation in a Nearby Nebula

NGC 261 blooms a brilliant ruby red against a myriad of stars in this new image from Hubble.

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Several stars fill the image, more closely concentrated near the center. Foreground stars with diffraction spikes shine throughout as well.

Hubble Observes An Oddly Organized Satellite

Andromeda III is one of at least 13 dwarf satellite galaxies in orbit around the Andromeda galaxy.

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Thousands of distant stars crowd the view against black space. A rosy, bloomlike tendril of red nebulosity shines near the center-top.

Hubble Zooms into the Rosy Tendrils of Andromeda

Clusters of stars set the interstellar medium ablaze in the Andromeda Galaxy about 2.5 million light-years away.

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A New View of the Universe

How did a telescope become a household name and change how we look at the cosmos forever?

With over 1.5 million observations and 20,000+ papers published on its discoveries, Hubble is the most productive science mission in the history of NASA. Yet the story of Hubble’s success starts before NASA even existed. It includes adversity, human ingenuity, heroic spacewalks, risk taking, and discovery. Learn the background of one NASA’s most famous missions.

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Hubble as seen from space shuttle
Astronauts aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis snapped a still photo of the Hubble Space Telescope after it was grappled by the shuttle's Canadian-built Remote Manipulator System during Servicing Mission 4. The mission left the telescope at the peak of its scientific capabilities, allowing it to continue furthering our knowledge of the cosmos.
NASA

Science, Technology, Culture: Hubble's Growing Legacy

From cultural touchstone to technological influencer, Hubble has left its mark on Earth

Hubble science has rewritten astronomy textbooks as its discoveries continually provide deeper explanations of astronomical objects and unveil new phenomena. But science isn’t the only way Hubble has impacted our world. From image detectors that are now used in the fight against breast cancer to science images that are used in Hollywood blockbuster movies, Hubble is embedded in our everyday lives and pop culture.

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The Hubble Telescope in space gripped by the space shuttle's robotic arm.
Held by the space shuttle Discovery’s robotic arm, Hubble is unfurling its solar arrays as it hovers over Earth during its deployment in April 1990. The technology in Hubble and in its ground system has been used for numerous other benefits down here on Earth.
NASA

Discovering the Unimagined

Hubble has not only furthered our knowledge of the known universe, it's shocked the astronomical world with never-before-seen phenomena.

When Hubble was launched, no planets around other stars had been discovered, Pluto had only one known moon, and dark energy was not even a concept. With over three decades of observations, Hubble has changed humanity’s understanding of the universe. We now know that black holes exist at the center of almost all galaxies, Jupiter’s massive storm – the Great Red spot – is now shrinking, light can echo just like sound, and the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate. Learn about Hubble’s great discoveries, understand the basics behind Hubble’s scientific capabilities, and explore its incredible images of the cosmos.

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a packed field of galaxies and curved blue streaks
Abell 370 is a massive galaxy cluster whose immense gravity distorts and magnifies the light of galaxies behind it. Hubble has used it to push its vision beyond its usual capabilities and see even farther galaxies. Such capabilities have allowed Hubble to change our understanding of all aspects of astronomy.
NASA, ESA, and J. Lotz and the HFF Team (STScI)

An Observatory for the Ages

Even after three decades in the harsh environment of space, Hubble is still at the peak of its scientific capability

Designed and built in the 1970’s and 1980’s, Hubble has far surpassed its 15-year life expectancy and produced science never thought possible at the time of its launch. Learn about Hubble’s unique design, the human spaceflight missions that have extended its life, and the ground operations that keep it as productive as ever.

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Photograph of the Hubble Space Telescope over the earth
This image of the Hubble Space Telescope was taken at the end of the final space shuttle servicing mission to the observatory in May 2009. Hubble's design for servicing, and the operations process on the ground, has allowed Hubble to continually amaze the world with incredible images and new scientific breakthroughs.
NASA

New Image

Hubble Spots Billowing Bubbles of Stellar Floss

Hubble released a new image of N11, a complex cluster of emission nebulae located within the Large Magellanic Cloud – a nearby dwarf galaxy orbiting the Milky Way. About 1,000 light-years across, N11’s sprawling filaments weave stellar matter in and out of each other like sparkling candy floss. These cotton-spun clouds of gas are ionized by a burgeoning host of young and massive stars

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Glowing clouds of pink and red gas and dust fill the image, along with several stars – foreground stars shine with diffraction spikes, and more distant stars fill the background.
This Hubble image shows a complex cluster of emission nebulae, nestled within the Large Magellanic Cloud.
NASA, ESA, and J. M. Apellaniz (Centro de Astrobiologia (CSIC/INTA Inst. Nac. de Tec. Aero.); Image Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)

Hubble’s Universe

121 Images
A combintation of yellow, brown, red, and blue/violet colored gas intermixed with blue and yellow stars.
Arms swirl of new blue stars around a central region of older yellow stars in this galaxy image.
Bright blue aurora circle the top of Jupiter's north pole.
Thousands of galaxies float in a small section of space.
A colorful red, orange, and brown and dust cloud with a bright blue star cluster on the right side.
A swirling dense galaxy with thick dust clouds surrounds a central region of older yellow stars whose front half appears darker, resembling a black eye.
A cluster of yellow galaxies with hundreds of background galaxies. The image include arcs that are distorted images of background galaxies.
Two galaxies interacting that look like mice with tails.
A massive cluster of blue, red, yellow, and white stars.
Go To Gallery

Hubble Images

View Images of Hubble Science, Servicing Missions, Operations, Spacecraft, Anniversaries, and more.



Explore More Hubble

Illustration of the Hubble Space Telescope (left) and the James Webb Space Telescope (right) on a grey background.

On The Shoulders of a Giant

What's the same and what's different? Compare these two NASA flagship missions.

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Hubble view of an expanding halo of light around star V838 Monocerotis. Center of the ball-like cloud holds a bright star surrounded by red gas. The outer region of the "ball" is a tan color dotted with stars. Black background dotted with stars.

Hubble Science Highlights

Hubble has affected every area of astronomy. Its most notable scientific discoveries reflect the broad range of research and the breakthroughs it has achieved.

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Hubble Nebula - Crab Nebula

Explore the Night Sky

Your backyard telescope and binoculars may not have the capabilities of Hubble, but you can still see amazing objects. Compare what you see with the images Hubble has taken.

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Hubble Space Telescope

Hubble E-books

Investigate the mysteries of the universe with Hubble. Learn Hubble's history. E-books dive deeper into Hubble discoveries and more.

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Keep Exploring

Discover More NASA Missions

James Webb Space Telescope

The image is divided horizontally by an undulating line between a cloudscape forming a nebula along the bottom portion and a comparatively clear upper portion. Speckled across both portions is a starfield, showing innumerable stars of many sizes. The smallest of these are small, distant, and faint points of light. The largest of these appear larger, closer, brighter, and more fully resolved with 8-point diffraction spikes. The upper portion of the image is blueish, and has wispy translucent cloud-like streaks rising from the nebula below. The orangish cloudy formation in the bottom half varies in density and ranges from translucent to opaque. The stars vary in color, the majority of which have a blue or orange hue. The cloud-like structure of the nebula contains ridges, peaks, and valleys – an appearance very similar to a mountain range. Three long diffraction spikes from the top right edge of the image suggest the presence of a large star just out of view.

NASA History

Parker Solar Probe

Juno